Westlaw tips for associates

Q: I want basic information to help me determine which parties are entitled to appeal orders in my state (New York). Here's the problem: Every word that might describe my issue is common (e.g., party, appeal, and order). As a result, my results are enormous, even when searching secondary sources. Help!

A: Even when your search terms are common words, effective queries may exist that retrieve results of a manageable size. If your own queries have been unsuccessful, try one of the thousands of expert–level queries already available in KeySearch. KeySearch can be especially useful when running difficult searches.

In this example, access KeySearch by clicking Key Numbers at the top of any Westlaw page and then clicking KeySearch under Browse Key Numbers. Click Civil Procedure. Click Appeal and Review, then click Persons Entitled to Appeal. At the KeySearch search page, select Encyclopedias and Treatises and select New York Practice Series from the corresponding drop-down list. Click Search. You retrieve 37 documents (not 3,700).